MISS SAIGON

On September 20, 1989 Miss Saigon premiered in London at the theatre royal, Drury Lane. The team recorded the casting process in a self-produced film, “The Making of Miss Saigon.” Mackintosh declared that the actor playing Kim must be “an eighteen-year-old of enormous charm and lungs of steel.” The story of the globetrotting casting process is now the stuff of history, one written in part by the creators themselves. The team recorded the casting process in a self-produced film, “The Making of Miss Saigon.” The casting of a Caucasian actor in the Eurasian role of the engineer ignited a firestorm of industry organizations, critics, and audiences sounding off on both sides of the issue. The actors equity union objected to the dearth of Asian performers in the cast (eleven of the show’s forty-four cast members were white) but especially to the casting of Pryce.